


Protective

by puzzlingnerd57



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Dirk is a cinnamon roll, Episode 3, Gen, Good Intentions Poor Execution, He deserves love and protection, Riggins is a Goodish Guy, might expand later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 08:50:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20486153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puzzlingnerd57/pseuds/puzzlingnerd57
Summary: Riggins never wanted to hurt Dirk. He only wanted to protect the young man.





	Protective

**Author's Note:**

> This kinda sad, kinda sweet one-shot (for now) came about from rewatching Dirk Gently for the 5th time in a few months, and while sleep deprived to the point where I almost cried when Todd said he believed Dirk.   
Honestly, I love the idea that Riggins was Dirk's protector at Blackwing, and that it wasn't Riggins that triggered Dirk's panic during episode 3, but the thought that he had to go back to Blackwing (an idea that is confirmed quite clearly in season 2). This just came from watching episode 3 and thinking about how Riggins looked sad at how upset Dirk was, and how young Dirk seemed when he was telling Riggins why he wouldn't go back.

Riggins watched as Project Icarus, as Svlad, no, as Dirk, walked down the stairs. There was unconcealed joy written on the young man’s face, as clear as any emotion he had ever seen on his face. Riggins hated the task he had been sent to do, but he knew that it was his only choice. If it wasn’t him leading, it would be the idiotic military lad working on his own, or, God forbid, the ghastly Priest, or heaven help them all, the two working together. He knew that his only hope, the only chance he had at getting Icarus to listen was if he was there himself.

It pained him to see the fear write itself on Svlad’s face as he made his presence known. He knew what Svlad was thinking, he knew that it was sadly true. He watched Svlad, no Dirk, start to walk back towards the door, and was prepared to let him go. He hated the shock that his arrival had been to the boy he had once mentored, once thought of as almost a son. He knew that the only way to gain Dirk’s help was to compromise, to let him go.

Then, the idiot known as Friedkin had to intervene. It was with silent horror that Riggins watched Dirk get tackled into the stairs, and he resisted the urge to run to the young man. That had been the painful truth of Blackwing, that no matter how much he tried to help, Blackwing would always get their way. A mantra that had already infected the militaristic man, and that haunted his nights as he fell asleep feeling hopeless.

He snapped out an order, forcing Friedkin to release Dirk, letting steel replace the begging that would have colored his tone. As he tried to sooth the young man, try to make him see reason, he watched the years seem to slip from his gaze, until the 29 year old man was suddenly 13 again. The same fears, the same pleading tone, the same desperation to be believed, trusted, loved. 

Riggins listened as Dirk begged, listing off why he couldn’t come in. He was on a case, he had friends, he was finding clues, he was a good detective, he was going to solve a real mystery. For that brief moment, he wasn’t standing in the gloomy lobby of an apartment building, but sitting in the room belonging to Project Icarus. He wasn’t facing a young man, but a boy, barely into his teen years. He wasn’t listening to pleading to not take him back, but to the dreams of a boy who knew that he could make something of himself outside. 

“I’m trying to protect you. I don’t know what they’ll do.”

There it was, laid out bare for Dirk to see. The reason he came in person, the reason he was forcing back every instinct saying that he should leave. 

Riggins was scared. 

Scared for himself, certainly, but scared for Dirk most of all. Scared for the precious innocence that still danced behind blue eyes, scared for the optimism and hope that cold steel and monotonous grey couldn’t kill, scared for the kind heart that would break if something happened to those he held dear. Fear for what Blackwing would do if they had the lad again, fear for how far they would go to get what they wanted, fear that there would be no second escape if he fought. 

‘I don’t know what they’ll do.’

“I don’t care. I don’t need you.”

Words hurt, far more than sticks and stones ever could. Riggins could see the fear he felt written on Dirk’s face as he uttered those painful words. Fear that was slowly being overtaken by resolve, by determination, by sheer bravery and the desire to make himself better.

“Go back to hiding in the shadows. It was the only thing you were ever good at.” Tears choked the young man’s words, the shaking tone cutting deeper than the words themselves.

If only Dirk knew. If only Riggins could tell him. He would confess to allowing the break out, he would admit to knowing what Project Incubus had planned, and quietly nudging them into Dirk’s direction, so that they would take him with them, if only out of Blackwing. 

Riggins would go back to the shadows. Silently protecting Icarus, no Svlad, no, Dirk, to the best of his ability, until a time came when he no longer had a shadow to hide in.

**Author's Note:**

> To all my user subscriptions, yes, I'm working on the next part of my Supernatural story. The last few seasons threw me off my game, but I'm getting back to where I was. No, I do not know when I will be posting it.  
To anyone else who is reading the notes, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to start any kind of discussion about Dirk Gently you'd like in the comments, because I'd love to hear from some fellow fans!


End file.
